The End
by Kd Zeal
Summary: Perhaps Magus would have prefered NOT finding Schala? In this case, he might have...


A/N If I owned anybody or place I mention, I would treat it better!   
  
After longer than he cared to track, Magus finally had his victory. At last he had found Schala, exactly where she had been left so long ago. And yet, this moment, his long awaited moment of pure joy, was still denied him. His crimson eyes greedily took in the sight of her, her beautiful eyes, her hair, her gentle smile unchanged, but still his joy was not, and could not be complete. One flaw marred forever this meeting, one fact he had never allowed himself consider.  
  
Schala was dying.   
  
Magus knelt beside his sister, and gently gather her to him, strong arms cradling her withered form. For years without count he had searched, mastering, bending, and finally shattering time itself in ways no man ever should, changing what he felt he must, turning heaven and earth upside down in his quest, and finally he had arrived here; the Ocean Palace, mere moments after Schala had sent him away with his one-time companions. Only moments...  
  
The warlock closed his ruby eyes in pain, and almost a tear got through. He stayed in that pose an instant longer, on one knee, his sister in his arms, face raise to the far-distant sky, grimacing in heartbreak. Slowly, his head lowered, blue hair just touched with gray falling around his face, letting him shut out the crumbling palace for a time, and live in a world where only he and his sister existed. He opened his eyes and studied her once more, noting that she did likewise. Her eyes were truly beautiful, once brightest green, now grayed, as was her formerly sky-blue hair. Her skin, once soft as petals, was now wrinkled, and indeed her whole form gave the appearance of great age. The last of her life was being sucked by the parasitic demon his people had termed a god. She would be gone soon...  
  
"J-janus...?" she whispered, her voice as faded as her body, with only a hint of the melody he recalled. "I thought you'd come..."  
  
"Schala...sister..." he murmured, cautiously holding her tighter.   
  
"L-little...brother... Hehe..." Her hand came up to caress his cheek, tracing the fine scars on his skin, her touch as light as a moth's. "You...must go. The Palace cannot...last... Do not die for my sake."   
  
Wordlessly, the man shook his head. How could he tell her that he was already dead, the only life he had known given by the determination to find her? She was his life; when she went, he must follow. The choice very simply was not his to make. He did not tell her this, did not even try. He simply held her has her life drained away, dying as she did.   
  
Schala gave one small, tired smile. "Little Janus...how...you've grown... I love you..." she murmured. Her eyes held his a moment longer, and then her hand fell away from his face, and her clear eyes clouded over. Schala, Princess of Zeal, was dead.   
  
Magus howled like a wounded animal, and indeed there wasn't much difference. He clutched the lifeless body to him, his cold heart finally breaking, as tears flowed down his face. "Schala...sister...SCHAAALLLAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"   
  
His tears stopped suddenly, and he gently lowered his sister to the ground. As the palace swiftly crumbled around him, he called his scythe to his side and viciously attacked the Mammon Machine, and any piece of wall, floor, or roof that he could reach. For a time, madness ruled in those scarlet eyes, and in the voice which screamed curses to the very heavens. And then finally the prince stopped, and held still. He cast his now-ruined weapon from him, and fell to the ground. Exhausted, both physically and mentally, he crawled toward the lifeless form in the middle of the room, resting only when he reached his sister's side.   
  
"Schala..." he whispered in a voice gone horse from shouting. He curled beside her motionless body as he had when still a child, smiling contentedly. "I love you, sister," he murmured before allowing sleep to take him.   
  
He still slept when the roof fell completely, and the ocean rushed in.   
  
End.   
  
Hey people, Kd Zeal here. Er, sorry about the depression... I got this story in my head, and it wouldn't leave... Just so you know, I'm usually not this morbid! I'll try to get more fics up later. Bye! Oh, R&R?? 


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